"What's wrong with being evil? Does being evil mean one deserves to be destroyed?"
The melodious toll of a bell drifted back and forth through the clouds.
Li Xuanxiao carried a square box as he walked through the mist-shrouded peaks.
A voice continuously rang out from within the ancient black box. "An Evil Cultivator? Must Evil Cultivators die?"
"You Shu Mountain people pride yourselves on being righteous. Then why couldn't you try to save me?"
"The Buddha said that laying down the butcher's knife would make one a Buddha on the spot. Even the Buddha was willing to give us a chance to turn over a new leaf."
"..."
Li Xuanxiao's expression remained cold as he continued onward.
Three Lights Divine Water flowed through the mountain peaks. Throwing this box into it would completely kill the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord inside.
"Don't you want to know why your eldest senior brother came here back then, made it halfway, yet brought me back to Shu Mountain instead of throwing me into the Three Lights Divine Water?"
Li Xuanxiao did not answer.
The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord was clearly getting anxious. "Your eldest senior brother possessed extraordinary talent, a peerless genius seen once in ten thousand years. Don't you want to know why he failed to complete his mission at the final moment?"
Li Xuanxiao remained silent, striding forward faster and faster.
Heaven Devouring Demon Lord: w(ﾟДﾟ)w!!!
Sure enough, even a Demon Lord could not endure the cold violence of being ignored.
"Fine! I'll tell you now. Back then, your patriarch and I were sworn brothers. We made a Great Dao oath to live and die together, linking our fates as one.
"If I die now, your beloved patriarch will die as well!!
"Think about your patriarch. He raised you from childhood and treated you as his own son. Could you really bear to kill him?
"How will you face your fellow disciples after returning? You killed your patriarch with your own hands!!"
The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord was practically roaring.
Li Xuanxiao had already arrived at the Three Lights Divine Water.
The Sunlight, Moonlight, and Starlight Divine Waters were all unparalleled divine waters, rare even in the world—and peerless poisons as well.
Sunlight Divine Water wore away flesh, blood, bones, and sinews.
Moonlight Divine Water corroded the Primordial Spirit and soul.
Starlight Divine Water devoured and dissolved true spirits and consciousness.
Even immortals who had attained the Dao of the Great Luo would lose a layer of skin if they touched them.
Naturally, the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord feared them beyond measure.
Li Xuanxiao's gaze was resolute. "We Shushan Disciples take vanquishing demons and defending the Dao as our duty. Heaven Devouring Demon Lord, you have slaughtered countless living beings. The reason you survived until today is half because you brought it upon yourself, and half because of the Shushan Sect Leader's indulgence.
"As the Shushan Sect Leader, Patriarch allowed himself to be swept along by selfish desires.
"Even if he dies now, it will be a death well deserved, making amends for his past sins."
Heaven Devouring Demon Lord: ...
Th-this was not quite the same as what those other Shushan Disciples had said before.
"Without the seven emotions and six desires, is one still human?" The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord immediately reacted. "I refuse to believe you brat don't have even a trace of evil thoughts!!"
Even Shu Mountain's eldest senior brother, with cultivation that powerful, had had his evil thoughts stirred by the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord.
This disciple before him would be even easier to deal with.
At once, the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord peered into Li Xuanxiao's evil thoughts.
The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord deserves to die!
Kill the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord!
The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord deserves to be sliced into a thousand pieces. Letting him die like this is letting him off too easily.
Sliced into a thousand pieces, sliced into a thousand pieces!
Heaven Devouring Demon Lord: ...What immense evil thoughts.
Though those evil thoughts were immense, the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord did not dare stir them.
Because if he did not stir Li Xuanxiao's evil thoughts, he would die.
But if he stirred them, he would probably die even faster!!
This was an open scheme. A single-minded fool had become trapped between two dead ends.
Li Xuanxiao formed a hand seal. "Disciple Li Xuanxiao requests that the Sect Leader die!"
The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord said, "Won't you at least ask whether your Sect Leader wants to die? I know him too well. He still has many regrets. He still wants to become an immortal. He, he... he... he still has a first love!!"
The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord was truly desperate.
"Do you know this is moral kidnapping? How can you casually sacrifice someone else just to satisfy your selfish desires!"
The Heaven Devouring Demon Lord began condemning Li Xuanxiao on moral grounds.
Li Xuanxiao merely replied with one calm sentence.
"Enough nonsense. Get in the water."
Heaven Devouring Demon Lord: "No..."
The square box fell into the Three Lights Divine Water, and a heart-rending wail rang out.
"..."
Shu Mountain.
The Sect Leader calmly ate roasted whole lamb.
This might have been the final moment of his life, yet he did not care in the slightest.
The several batches of disciples sent before had all ultimately failed. Even Shu Mountain's prized eldest disciple had his evil thoughts stirred at the final moment.
The Sect Leader's feelings were exceedingly complicated.
Who truly wanted to die? But if the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord was not killed, Shu Mountain's name would be utterly disgraced.
Sigh. If that boy learns that killing the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord will kill this old man as well...
Li Xuanxiao surely won't be able to bring himself to do it.
The Sect Leader still remembered carrying the gravely ill Li Xuanxiao back from the foot of the mountain. If not for him, Li Xuanxiao would likely have died long ago.
Li Xuanxiao had grown up on Shu Mountain. Aside from being close to his master, he was closest to this patriarch of his.
Who on Shu Mountain did not know that the Sect Leader doted greatly on Li Xuanxiao?
That boy valued loyalty and affection deeply. In his heart, the Sect Leader was probably like a grandfather—kind and approachable.
At that thought, the Sect Leader shook his head.
That boy would absolutely never be able to do it.
But after a while longer, that sealing box would likely no longer be able to suppress the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord.
Perhaps he should change his line of thinking and stop having Shushan Disciples handle this matter.
After all, once Shushan Disciples learned that killing the Heaven Devouring Demon Lord meant killing him, their Sect Leader, no one would likely be able to bring themselves to do it.
He was beloved by all, kind and approachable, and treated every Shushan Disciple as though they were his own child...
At that moment, the Sect Leader's five disciples walked in.
The five disciples were not the least bit surprised to see the Sect Leader leisurely eating roasted whole lamb.
"Judging by the time, Li Xuanxiao should have reached the Three Lights Divine Water by now."
"Sigh, Xuanxiao is still so young. He likely cannot bear such a great responsibility."
"Yes, and not to mention how deeply attached Xuanxiao is to the Sect Leader."
"..."
"Disciple Li Xuanxiao requests that the Sect Leader die!!"
The five disciples had been speaking quietly.
Just then, a voice rang out across the heavens, like rolling thunder.
The Sect Leader raised his head, an astonished expression appearing on his face.
An invisible and powerful force surged toward him like a tidal wave, enveloping his entire body with the speed of a thunderbolt before one could cover one's ears.
In an instant, the Sect Leader's body began to tremble violently.
Sect Leader: (⊙o⊙)...
Immediately afterward, his divine soul gradually melted away beneath the erosion of that mysterious force, vanishing swiftly without a trace like ice and snow meeting blazing fire.
In only a brief moment, the Shushan Sect Leader's divine soul completely vanished from this world, leaving behind nothing but deathly silence and the utterly horrified gazes of those present...
Central Divine Continent, twenty-first year of the Great Treasure era.
The Shushan Sect Leader, deceased.
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